Friday, December 30, 2016

Welcome to #Top16of2016 hosted by KimberlyfayeReads! Today's topic: Favorite Books of 2016! See the full list of topics on my sign up post! Here are my favorites I read this year! What are some of your favorites?

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Welcome to today's #Top16of2016! This event is hosted by KimberlyfayeReads! Today's topic: Favorite New To Me Authors! See the full list of topics on my sign up post! I did a similar post for Top Ten Tuesday a couple weeks back, but for this post I picked my favorites from that post.

Monday, December 26, 2016

On an isolated Texas ranch, Dr. Lucy cares for abandoned animals. The solitude allows her to avoid the people and places that remind her of the past. Not that any of the townsfolk care. In 1959, no one is interested in a woman doctor. Nor are they welcoming Calvin and Justin Bell, a newly arrived African American father and son.

When Pete Solomon, a neglected twelve-year-old boy, and Justin bring a wounded wolf-dog hybrid to Dr. Lucy, the outcasts soon find refuge in one another. Lucy never thought she’d make connections again, never mind fall in love. Pete never imagined he’d find friends as loyal as Justin and the dog. But these four people aren’t allowed to be friends, much less a family, when the whole town turns violently against them.

With heavy hearts, Dr. Lucy and Pete say goodbye to Calvin and Justin. But through the years they keep hope alive…waiting for the world to catch up with them.

Purchase Links

What a great read! I was drawn to the book because of Dr. Lucy and all her animals, of course, and I really enjoyed the author's writing style! This was my first time reading a book by this author, and I really enjoyed it. It was an emotional book, and a hard one to put down once I started reading it. I also enjoyed the historical setting of the book (late 50's/early 60's), and feel the author portrayed the time period well. Despite being set in that time period, the subject matter was still so relevant today (sadly). It was hard to read at times, but so worth the read.

As an animal lover, in addition to Dr. Lucy, my favorite character was Prince! A beautiful book and a great read! Thanks to TLC Book Tours and NetGalley for the ARC!

About Catherine Ryan Hyde

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of thirty published and forthcoming books. Her bestselling 1999 novel Pay It Forward, adapted into a major Warner Bros. motion picture starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, made the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults list and was translated into more than two dozen languages for distribution in more than thirty countries. Her novels Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA’s Rainbow List; Jumpstart the World was also a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and won Rainbow Awards in two categories. More than fifty of her short stories have been published in many journals, including the Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and the Sun, and in the anthologiesSanta Barbara Stories and California Shorts and the bestselling anthology Dog Is My Co-Pilot. Her short fiction received honorable mention in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, a second-place win for the Tobias Wolff Award, and nominations for Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have also been cited in Best American Short Stories.

Ryan Hyde is also founder and former president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.